In 1937, Irna Phillips, underwritten by General Mills, began scripting a 45-minute block of three quarter-hour serial dramas for NBC Radio. The General Mills Hour, broadcast weekdays at 2pm, ran for nearly a decade on NBC before its sponsor pulled the plug in 1946. But one of those three dramas was popular enough for CBS to pick up just months later. And after a few more years on the radio it was transformed into a television program in 1952.
72 years after its first radio broadcast, Guiding Light’s run has come to an end. Sadly, after 15,762 episodes, hundreds of marriages, half as many divorces, countless deaths, resurrections to match, and at least one cloning, Guiding Light will broadcast its last episode today, making it the longest scripted drama in the history of broadcast media. A single serial drama, no less. To put that into perspective, stitch together all 15,762 episodes into a contiguous story and what you’re essentially left with is, well…
Humanity’s longest fictional work is arguably a soap opera created to sell baking flour and breakfast cereal.¹
In an interview with 60 Minutes, when asked by Morley Safer “What makes [Guiding Light characters] so real to so many people?”, actress Beth Chamberlin responded “Because they’ve watched, oftentimes, our birth, our marriage… and then our deaths.” That Guiding Light aired long enough for its characters to effectively age at the same pace as its actors (and the audience) is pretty remarkable. Some cast members starred on Guiding Light for over two decades. Some fans claim to have been watching for even longer. I can’t imagine there’s any other work of art or entertainment that’s been experienced that way–over such a long period of time, by so many people.
As it turns out, longevity isn’t Guiding Light’s only accomplishment. In 1938, Irna Phillips helped publish a companion book that explored the program’s backstory, making The Guiding Light one of the earliest, if not the first work of transmedia fiction. (Not to mention between 1952 and 1956 The Guiding Light was recorded twice a day–once for radio and once for television.) Phillips was also the first to explore character crossovers; she scripted characters to move freely between The Guiding Light, Today’s Children, and Women in White–the three dramas of The General Mills Hour.
For a soap opera, it’s got a lot going for it. Not to get sentimental about a television show I’ve never watched, but it sorta sucks no one can figure out a way to keep the story going.
¹Stacked up against the world’s longest novels: Henry Darger’s 10-volume The Story of the Vivian Girls is only 15,145 typed pages; Guiding Light ran for 15,762 episodes. Beyond that, Marienbad My Love, at 17-million words, is computer generated–that doesn’t count. And 11-million word The Blah Story? Total gimmick.
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